Renny Harlin’s “The Strangers: Chapter 2” is the second in an already-shot trilogy, with the final installment scheduled for launch someday subsequent 12 months.
Once we final met Maya (Madelaine Petsch), she had survived being terrorized by a trio of masked serial killers and lived by an extended night time of hiding in a cabin after witnessing the homicide of her boyfriend (Froy Gutierrez). Now awake in a hospital with horrible safety, Maya finds The Strangers are nonetheless after her.
Harlin made a reputation for himself within the Nineteen Eighties by helming dynamically made horror movies, earlier than taking pictures to the highest of the Hollywood A-list, with motion classics like “Die Arduous 2” (1990), “Cliffhanger” (1993) and the still-fantastic “The Lengthy Kiss Goodnight” (1996).
After the infamous 1995 failure of “Cutthroat Island” (which is much better than its fame), Harlin principally made B-movies. The miserable factor about most of Harlin’s latest movies wasn’t that they have been bombs however that these motion pictures, resembling “The Covenant” (2006) and “12 Rounds” (2009), have been made with no ardour.
What I’m attempting to say is that “The Strangers: Chapter 2” isn’t simply one of the best “Strangers” film but, nevertheless it’s been made by the identical Harlin who directed “A Nightmare on Elm Road 4: The Dream Grasp” (1988). Helming a “Strangers” trilogy could also be B-movie work, however Harlin has made this with wit and talent.
The story does the “Halloween II” (1981) factor for the primary stretch and fairly effectively, so far as hospital stalk n’ slash thrillers go (why are these hospitals all the time stylishly lit however nearly utterly empty?). As soon as the story leaves the Emergency Unit and the setting retains altering, “The Strangers: Chapter 2” actually takes off.
On the mid-point, there’s an out-of-left-field sequence so sudden and fantastically staged that it elevates your entire movie. I received’t describe it, and cinephiles will acknowledge the inspiration for the sequence immediately, nevertheless it’s so good, I believe I held my breath for your entire length.
I don’t imply to indicate that Harlin has made one thing stylish and contemporary. There are lazy bounce scares and a few particularly brutal moments, although Harlin has the smarts to go away essentially the most nauseating violence simply out of digital camera view.
It’s additionally laughable to see The Strangers stalk somebody within the woods as a result of A. their masks present them no peripheral imaginative and prescient and B. since we and Maya don’t know what they appear to be unmasked, they’d be higher off shedding the masks, disguising themselves as forest rangers and attempting to seize Maya by fooling her.
A few of that is routine slasher film stuff, however Harlin offers us sufficient surprises to make this one of the best on this franchise (sure, it’s higher than the 2008 authentic, which is effectively crafted and acted however has an ending that isn’t simply vicious however self-defeating).
Harlin offers us flashbacks exhibiting us The Strangers as kids, which is a foolish contact, however the Unhealthy Seed origin scenes are nonetheless dealt with effectively.
With all the encompassing conspiracies constructing throughout the townsfolk, Petsch’s glorious efficiency carrying the movie, and the intriguing plot threads arrange within the conclusion, it appears Harlin is actually going someplace with this.
Petsch’s first-rate main flip not solely carries the movie however offers us a protagonist whose destiny I cared about.
Right here’s hoping that the third and ultimate chapter, when it arrives, is one of the best one and concludes this on a powerful observe.
“The Strangers: Chapter 2” could play plenty of horror film hits, nevertheless it’s nonetheless atmospheric, well-staged and intriguing in its suggestion that nobody, on this little city or anyplace, can actually be trusted.
Two and a Half Stars